Twin boys: different by appearance and similar by music taste, born to a mother who only gave birth once and struck gold the first time, child prodigies, an age difference of only ten minutes, forming a band in 2001 that is still popular and loved.... These boys are the Kaulitz twins from Tokio Hotel, a band that has just recently (October 6, 2009) released their second English album and third German album: Humanoid.

Picking up the record you immediately notice the futuristic and metallic theme of the album artwork. On the front is the familiar TH logo that we've come to know and love, then a picture of Bill in robotic form. At the bottom it says HUMANOID. An interesting enough cover with an intriguing title meaning “human-like.” The theory for the title was that Bill Kaulitz wanted one international title that would be recognized by everyone worldwide, instead of like the titles off the other Tokio Hotel records.

After reading a review that the Rolling Stone did, I don't feel that Bill's so-called “lack of charisma” and “strangely reduced sound” is enough to justify the two out of five stars that was given to Humanoid. I would hate to call the review unfair, but there's no other kinder way to put it.

Granted, Humanoid is definitely a transition from Tokio Hotel's other albums from their younger years. But they've developed more as people and more as musicians and have every right to make whatever music they choose to. No matter how it sounds, it will still always be Tokio Hotel.

The first taste that the public got of Humanoid was of the first single off the record “Automatic.” They put up a music video for the song on their official Youtube channel, receiving a little over two million views since it's been up September 3rd the single being released on the 22nd of the same month. The music video was shot in the Kalahari desert in South Africa. The story of the video is of two robots who fall in love.

The record has a running theme in the sound of their music on Humanoid and the mood matches perfectly with the album art. There is almost an apocalyptic feel to the record. The songs are definitely similar in the way that they sound, but there is always something about the song that makes it memorable and sets it apart from the others. The lyrics are almost nearly the only thing that seems to be classic Tokio Hotel. While the music maybe be different, you can steal feel comfort from the familiar words.

A connection that can be made between Humanoid and Scream is that the song “Noise” and “Scream” share the same concept. It's still delivering the same message. “Noise” says, “Get up and raise your voice. Make some noise, here on earth, noise,  to the world, noise, for all the things you believe in, noise, let them here you.” Then in the song “Scream” the lyrics say, “Back to zero, your time's about to come. Let them know you're not just anyone. Scream, scream it out loud. Your tie's about to come.” You could say that Bill wants to encourage people to believe in themselves and do what they choose to no matter what anyone in the world says or tries to do.

If you purchases the deluxe edition there are four songs on the second CD that seem to be sort of the odd-balls of the record. They still sound amazing and share the same futuristic sounds, but these four songs sound so different from each other as well as every single song on the first disc. Think of the songs as broken pieces to a puzzle and you put them back together, all four of them have a theme of love making the second disc of Humanoid all about affection, passion, and possibly heartbreak and pain.

As stated before, no matter what the music sounds like, the sound and lyrics will always be Tokio Hotel. If Bill, Tom, Gustav, and Georg keep progressing musically between this record and the next, we can not guarantee more of the same sounding music. We can only hope for experiencing another different but beautiful record from the same people that are known as Tokio Hotel.